February 2026 | Tend

How do you react to threat? What is your primary physiological response? We tend to discuss the human stress response in terms of fight-or-flight and sometimes fight-flight-or-freeze. However, some researchers feel that there is a different response that is more common in females: tend-and-befriend. Tending includes nurturing actions which protect, reduce distress, and create safety for ourself and for offspring or others we deeply care about. Befriending is creating connections and social networks that aid in these nurturing actions. In fact, some of our more enduring relationships are formed during periods of shared difficulty or threat. Reflecting on the pandemic, and how warmly we may recall those that we spent time with, for example.

The world may feel confusing and overwhelming at this time. Kindness is often criminalised. And yet, many of us check in daily on the quiet (and sometimes bare) footfall of a group of monks on a 2,300 mile journey in the United States, and the much louder footfall and voices of those protesting around the world. Communities and neighbours coming together to help, to bring food, to create safety, to share. While it may not feel like power, as we have known it, the gentle, the nurturing, at times may be the more powerful response. We all lean into kindness, whether we realise it or not.

In this issue of Sivananda Yoga Sandesha we look at tending and nourishing. We share Swami Sivananda’s words “The Garden of the Heart”, and a research study on the “Tend and Befriend” response. Nourish yourself and your family with our recipe for Vata Pacifying Cacao-Date-Walnut Balls. Finally, discover instances of being held from the stories of Krishna. As usual, please feel free to reach out to us with your thoughts and feedback at: [email protected]

Prana Pratishta refers to the sacred consecration ceremony where prana is invoked into an idol (vigraha), transforming it from inert stone or metal into a living deity. This multi-day ritual purifies the temple premises, idols, land, and participants, removing accumulated karmic debts, pitru doshas (ancestral curses or unresolved debts), and deva doshas (divine afflictions from neglected worship). The Ayyappa Swamy Temple, dedicated to Lord Ayyappa (also known as Dharma Sastha or Hariharaputra, has been installed our Ashram in Gudur, Andhra Pradesh from January 8 to 9. Prana was formally installed into the deity under the guidance of Tantri Swamy Siva Narayana Theertha, our Yoga Acharya Prahlada Ji, trustee Mammalan Ji, and Sthapathi Tagur ji. The ceremony was attended by a large gathering of devotees, accompanied by traditional music, chants, and processions. Kalasha Abhishekam, elaborate Naivedya, Mangala Aarti, and Anna Prasadam for over 300 devotees followed.

As the centenary year of Swami Chaitanyananda Saraswathiji Maharaj (1926–2026) unfolds, members of the extended Divine Life Society and Sivananda Yoga Ashram family are drawn into a quiet and reflective remem­brance, gratitude and a renewed commitment to spiritual life.

Swami Chaitanyananda Saraswati was born in 1926, in Hyderabad. From an early age, he displayed a natural inclination toward spiritual inquiry and Vedantic reflection, a tendency that would later find full expression in his monastic life and contemplative orientation. In 1951 he received sannyasa diksha directly from H.H. Sri Swami Sivananda Saraswati. With this initiation, Maharaj entered fully into the living current of the Sivananda tradition—an approach to spiritual life grounded in selfless service, disciplined practice and inner realisation.

Maharaj’s inner disposition toward Advaita Vedanta was clearly recognised by Swami Sivananda himself. “You are an Advaitin by nature. You are not meant primarily for outward labour or active service.”

In 1958, Maharaj chose a life of seclusion and intensive sadhana in Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand. He remained there for nearly five decades, residing at Sivananda Ashram in Ujeli, which he founded in 1962 and where he established himself firmly within a rich and rigorous lineage of Advaita Vedanta.

As remembered by Swami Janardhanananda Saraswathi, a close student of Maharaj, he guided hundreds of sadhakas in their spiritual pursuit. Students lived and studied under his tutelage, learning Vedanta and Sanskrit in an atmosphere of simplicity and discipline. As an individual, he was remembered for his gentleness and touching humility. Swami Janardhanananda Saraswathi recalls: “I basked in his loving presence of matchless wisdom and boundless humility.”

Maharaj also shared a close bond with his guru-bhai, Swami Vishnudevananda Saraswati, founder of Sivananda Yoga Ashrams worldwide. Swami Vishnudevananda regularly visited Maharaj in Uttarkashi, often staying for extended periods at the modest ashram in Ujeli. Maharaj was also instrumental in facilitating the establishment of Sivananda Kutir in Netala in the early 1990s, supporting the continued spread of Vedantic study.

As his centenary is observed, the remembrance of Swami Chaitanyananda Saraswathiji Maharaj invites not admiration, but reflection—pointing seekers toward the same inward stillness that shaped his life and sustained his long journey in the path of Advaita Vedanta.

The mind is like a garden. Just as you can cultivate good flowers and fruits in a garden by ploughing and fertilizing the land and removing the weeds and thorns and watering the plants and trees, in the same way you can cultivate the flower of devotion in the garden of your heart by removing the impurities of the mind such as lust, anger, greed, delusion, pride, and watering it with divine thoughts.

Weeds and thorns grow in the rainy season and disappear in summer, but their seeds remain underneath the ground. As soon as there is a shower of rain, the seeds again germinate and sprout. In the same way, the vrittis or modifications of the mind manifest on the surface of the conscious mind, then disappear and assume a subtle seed state in the form of samskaras or impressions, and again become vrittis either through internal or external stimulus.

When the garden is clean, when there are no weeds and thorns, you can obtain good flowers and fruits. So also when the heart and the mind are pure, you can have the fruit of good deep meditation. The mind becomes impure if it is not kept clean by the regular practice of meditation. Therefore, cleanse the mind of impurities first.

Pierce through the steel armour of biased thoughts and try to see the divinity in every object. With each divine thought, the mind rends the thin rinds of the visible and finite and comes out into eternity.

Your destiny is mapped out by your thoughts. You have only as much power as you imagine you have. The limit of your thought is the limit of your possibilities. Your circumstances and environments are the materialization of your thoughts. Whatever thought you cherish will be ultimately realized.

The mind is a mischievous imp. It is like a jumping monkey. It must be disciplined daily. Only then will it gradually come under your control. It is only by the practical training of your mind that you can encourage good thoughts and actions to arise, and sustain good thoughts and actions when they have arisen.

Thought is a good servant. It is an instrument. Utilize it tactfully and properly. The prime requisite for happiness is control over the thoughts. Your thought is imprinted over your face; thought is a bridge that connects the human with the Divine.

Drive away from your mind all unnecessary, useless and obnoxious thoughts. Useless thoughts impede your spiritual growth; obnoxious thoughts are stumbling blocks to spiritual advancement. Useful thoughts are stepping-stones to spiritual growth and progress.

Send out a steady stream of thought and goodwill to all creation. The energizing motive behind every thought should be service and friendliness.

This nutritious, nourishing, and digestion-supporting recipe focuses on grounding, warming, and nourishing ingredients to counter the cold, light, and dry qualities of Vata dosha.
Ingredients:

• 1 cup Medjool dates, pitted (soaked in hot water for 5-10 minutes)
• ½ cup raw walnuts
• 2 tbsp raw cacao powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp ginger powder
• Pinch of sea salt

Instructions:
Pre-soak pitted dates in hot water for 5-10 minutes. Add walnuts to a food processor and pulse until they are broken down into small, fine pieces. Add softened dates, cacao, cinnamon, ginger and salt to the processor. Blend until a thick, sticky “dough” forms. Scoop the mixture and make small balls. Store in an airtight container and refrigerate to firm up.

Benefits:
Walnuts and dates provide heavy, nourishing, and grounding qualities that stabilize Vata. Ginger and Cinnamon are warming spices that boost digestion, which is often weak in Vata dominated people.

When fear enters our lives, we instinctively prepare to fight or flee. We gather strength to resist what threatens us, or search for escape. Yet sometimes there is another way. Sometimes the answer is to remain. The Bhagavata Purana reveals this quietly in the childhood of Krishna.

From his birth, danger surrounds Krishna. It does not always appear terrifying. It arrives disguised as affection, as nourishment, or as something familiar. Poison hides in milk, as in the story of Putana (Bhagavata Purana 10.6). Harm approaches in ordinary forms. Yet Krishna–who symbolises the prana within us–survives because he is held. As we see throughout his childhood, his mother, Yashoda does not confront danger with spectacle or force. She feeds him. She rocks him. She listens to his breathing in the night. When fear stirs in the city of Gokul, she gathers the women to watch over Krishna. They remain vigilant together. Protection becomes a shared care. It becomes attention and affection. It becomes love that refuses to look away.

The Upanishads remind us that life rests first upon nourishment. The Taittiriya Upanishad declares, “Annam brahma” food is Brahman (3.2), and instructs, “Annam na nindyat” let none despise food (3.7). Before knowledge, before power, there is sustenance. Life continues because it is nourished. In Yashoda’s arms, this truth becomes visible. The Infinite (Paramatman) drinks milk. The vast rests in a small wooden cradle. The one who will later speak of dharma survives because someone remains nearby.

In the Damodara episode (Bhagavata Purana 10.9), Yashoda binds Krishna to the mortar. This act is not anger alone but the instinct to keep what is precious within reach. The Absolute consents to be bound by affection (bhakti-baddha) not by force. The universe allows itself to be tied by love.

The story reshapes our understanding of strength. Not all protection arrives with weapons. Sometimes it comes as warm food, watchful neighbours, and steady hands. Sometimes courage is simply remaining when fear urges withdrawal. And if you look within today, not all demons arrive with thunder. Some come as anxiety, comparison, or exhaustion. Yet the teaching endures: what sustains life is presence. What protects it is attention. What saves it is love that stays.